Bruce Lee: Fans Mark 40 Years Since Death

Bruce Lee is an international icon that helped put Hong Kong on the movie map but fans believe the Chinese territory is not doing enough to honour him on the 40th anniversary of his death.

Fans and scholars are attending anniversary events this weekend including art gallery shows, exhibitions and even street graffiti but they believe the government is unwilling to fully embrace his legacy.

Many are angry about the lack of a permanent memorial for the star and disappointed over failed negotiations two years ago to buy and restore Lee's former mansion to create a museum devoted to him.

Wong Yiu-keung, chairman of Hong Kong's Bruce Lee fan club, said of the city's government: "They have always used him when promoting the city abroad but have never done anything in honour of him."

Some suggest his spirit of youthful rebellion and willingness to fight oppressors may have spooked city leaders prone to second-guessing the government in Beijing.

Lo Wai-luk, an associate professor in the Academy of Film at Hong Kong Baptist University, said: "The Hong Kong government or the people on top of the governing body are not thinking, first of all, in terms of Hong Kong people's mindset.

A statute of Bruce Lee has been unveiled

"They think of how to do something to please the main Chinese government, or not to violate what they think Beijing likes."

Lee, who was born in San Francisco but raised in Hong Kong, died at the height of his fame due to an allergic reaction to painkillers at the age of 32.

His last film, Enter the Dragon, was released six days after his death and became his most popular movie.

The Hong Kong government teamed up with the Bruce Lee Foundation to put together an exhibition to showcase the late star's life from his famous yellow tracksuit he wore in the movie Game of Death, to his writings and drawings.

Bruce Lee: Kung Fu. Art. Life opened on Saturday and has more than 600 items on display, including photos, costumes, videos and even a 3.5 metre statue.

His daughter Shannon Lee, who was four when her father died, hopes the display will "help show a more complete picture" by showing Lee's family side and the hard work he put into making his movies.

"I think a lot of people see the final product up on screen and they go, 'Oh, there's a talented guy,' but they don't see all the effort that went into it," she said.

The government film archive is also producing documentaries of his life and new prints of some of Lee's films.

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Schindler's List For Sale On Ebay For $3m

An original copy of Schindler's list is up for an sale on eBay - but collectors will need to spend at least $3m (£1.9m) to get their hands on a rare piece of Second World War history.

The typewritten list - one of only four in existence - bears the names of 801 men saved from the Holocaust by Oskar Schindler.

He is thought to have saved the lives of 1,200 Jews employed in his factories during the war - a story which inspired Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film Schindler's List in 1993.

Mr Schindler's 14-page list, which dates back to 1945, previously belonged to the family of Itzhak Stern, his accountant and right-hand man.

The 1945 list has a starting price of some $3m (£1.9m)

It is listed on eBay with an extract from an interview he gave 10 years before his death, which reads: "I felt the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them. There was no choice."

Gary Zimet, a Los Angeles-based auctioneer who listed the item with his business partner Eric Gazin, said: "I don't anticipate any bidders until the last day or probably the last five or 10 minutes."

He said they chose to sell the item through eBay and not a conventional auction house because of the website's global reach.

Potential buyers may be screened or asked to leave a deposit before their bids are accepted.

The successful bidder must be able to pick up the document from Israel, as it will not be sent by post.

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Obama: Trayvon 'Could Have Been Me' Years Ago

Barack Obama has said Trayvon Martin "could have been me 35 years ago" and urged Americans to do some "soul-searching" about the country's racial history.

The President took the rare step of speaking about his own personal experiences of racism, as he talked openly for the first time since a man was cleared of killing a black teenager in Florida last week.

In the aftermath of the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch volunteer, Mr Obama had issued only a statement urging calm.

But on televised remarks, he said: "When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago."

His comments came ahead of rallies scheduled to take place in 100 cities calling for civil rights charges against the former neighbourhood watch leader.

The President said black Americans feel pain after the verdict because they view the case through "a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away".

The case, rife with racial overtones, have prompted protests across the US

Mr Obama, the country's first African-American president, spoke emotionally about the kind of subconscious racial profiling that blacks, especially young black men, continue to suffer in the country.

"There are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they are shopping at a department store - and that includes me.

"There are very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars - that happened to me, at least before I was a senator."

Mr Obama said that violence would "dishonour" Trayvon's death.

Trayvon, 17, was shot to death by Mr Zimmerman, who describes himself as Hispanic, during a confrontation in a gated community in Florida in 2012.

Trayvon, who was unarmed and had been visiting his father, was followed by Mr Zimmerman. 

Mr Zimmerman said Trayvon assaulted him and he fired his gun in self-defence.

A jury last week agreed with his version of events and cleared him of second-degree murder charges.

Trayvon's parents have said they were shocked at the verdict

The President declined to wade into the detail of legal questions about the case, saying: "Once the jury's spoken, that's how our system works."

But he said state and local laws, such as Florida's "stand your ground" statute, need a close look.

Mr Obama said it would be useful "to examine some state and local laws to see if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of confrontation" that led to Trayvon's death.

He questioned whether a law that sends the message that someone who is armed "has the right to use those firearms even if there is a way for them to exit from a situation" really promotes the peace and security that people want.

Trayvon's parents said in a statement they were honoured by Mr Obama's "beautiful tribute" to their son.

"What touches people is that our son, Trayvon Benjamin Martin, could have been their son," they said. "President Obama sees himself in Trayvon and identifies with him. This is a beautiful tribute to our boy."

Meanwhile, Mr Zimmerman's brother, Robert, said he was "glad" Mr Obama had spoken out.

"No matter what you think of the verdict, there have to be things that bring us together," he told Fox News.

Sky's US Correspondent Amanda Walker said some Americans will feel Mr Obama has "gone too far" but added: "For many African-Americans there will be a sense of relief - relief that could calm the mood of a series of protests planned for the weekend."

Trayvon's parents have spoken of their shock at the verdict, and several protests have been staged across the US.

The Rev Al Sharpton's National Action Network has organised more "Justice for Trayvon" rallies and vigils outside federal buildings from New York and Los Angeles to Des Moines, Iowa, and Little Rock, Ark on Saturday.

He wants the Justice Department to pursue a case.

The group says Trayvon's mother and brother will attend the New York event. His father will appear in Miami.

The Justice Department has said it plans to review the case to determine whether federal prosecutors should file criminal civil rights charges now that Mr Zimmerman has been acquitted.

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Costa Concordia: Five Guilty Of Manslaughter

Five people have been found guilty of manslaughter over the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster which left 32 people dead.

The court in Grosseto in Italy handed down the highest sentence to the crisis co-ordinator for the Italian cruise company Costa Crociere, Roberto Ferranini, who could serve two years and 10 months.

The ship's hotel director was sentenced to two years and six months while two bridge officers and a helmsman got sentences ranging from one year and eight months to one year and 11 months.

None are likely to go to jail though as the sentences of less than two years are suspended, and the longer sentences may be appealed or replaced with community service, judicial sources said.

On Thursday, Francesco Schettino - the captain of the Costa Concordia and the main defendant - asked the judge at his manslaughter trial to order tests on the cruise liner's wreckage to determine why electrical and other systems failed after the vessel struck a reef off the Italian island of Giglio.

Schettino talks to his lawyers in Grosseto

The outcome of his request will not be known until at least September.

His trial was adjourned until September 23 for a summer's break.

Schettino is also charged with causing the shipwreck in January 2012 and abandoning ship before all aboard had been evacuated.

His defence claims that no one died in the collision itself, but that the failure of a backup generator and supposedly water-tight compartments that were flooded created problems during the evacuation, when the deaths occurred.

If convicted, Schettino could receive up to 20 years in prison.

The cruise company Costa Crociere was given an administration fine of one million euros (£860,000) earlier this year, under a law in which companies whose employees commit crimes can be sanctioned. It has put the blame for the collision on Schettino.

Salvage experts are still attempting to work out how to right the ship, which remains stuck on a reef off Giglio, and float it away to the mainland for demolition.

The boat has become a macabre tourist attraction in the area.

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Israel Plans Palestinian Prisoner Release

Israel has said it will release some Palestinian prisoners after the two sides agreed to lay the groundwork to resume peace talks frozen for three years.

A "limited number" of "heavyweights" - who have been held in Israeli prisons for up to 30 years - will be released, Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told public radio.

"There will definitely be a certain gesture here," he added.

His announcement came hours after US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed the breakthrough in negotiations.

John Kerry visiting the West Bank

Mr Kerry said that as a first step Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni would meet him in Washington "to begin initial talks within the next week or so".

Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the announcement.

He said: "This is of course a beginning, not an end. Britain stands ready to do all we can over the coming weeks and months to support the parties and the US in their efforts to achieve a lasting peace for the Israeli and Palestinian people."

The last round of direct talks broke down in 2010 over the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The issue of continued expansion of settlements remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks between the two sides.

According to a recent assessment by Israeli rights group B'Tselem, at least 4,713 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel.

Mr Steinitz stressed that aside from the prisoner releases, Israel would not be compromising on "diplomatic issues".

He added that there was no agreement on a settlement construction freeze or on accepting the borders that existed prior to 1967 Six-Day war as the basis for talks as demanded by the Palestinians.

He said for their part the Palestinians had committed to "negotiate seriously" for "at least nine months" during which they would refrain from action at the United Nation and other international institutions.

John Kerry meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank

Mr Kerry warned that while this was a significant step forward, the issues separating the sides were "difficult" and "complicated".

A US State Department official said Mr Kerry had wrenched a commitment from both sides "on the core elements that will allow direct talks to begin".

The Israelis and Palestinians remain far apart on final status issues including the borders of a future Palestinian state, the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and the fate of Jerusalem which both want as their capital.

Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the latest developments.

Chico Menashe, diplomatic commentator for Israeli public radio, likened the situation to "a half-baked cake Kerry removed from the stove. Kerry convinced the Israelis and Palestinians it was edible, and both sides agreed to eat it".

Predictably, the Islamist Hamas movement which runs the Gaza Strip rejected a return to talks, its spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri saying Abbas had no legitimate right to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people.

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Alexei Navalny Vows To Run For Moscow Mayor

Russian political activist and blogger Alexei Navalny has been greeted by hundreds of ecstatic supporters following his release from prison on fraud charges.

Navalny, 37, shouted his thanks as he was presented with flowers and lifted over the heads of opposition activists at a Moscow railway station.

Navalny intends to challenge Putin for the Presidency

Hand in hand with his wife Yulia, Russia's main opposition leader stepped off a train from the city of Kirov after being unexpectedly freed pending an appeal against his five-year sentence.

Police in riot gear linked arms to hold back supporters who gathered on an opposite platform and beyond the ticket barriers, some wearing T-shirts with the slogan: "Navalny's brother".

A few managed to break through and handed bouquets of roses and chrysanthemums to Navalny's wife.

Grabbing a megaphone, Navalny thanked the crowd for their support.

"I didn't doubt for a second that we would win," he said. "I just didn't believe it would only take two days!

"I want to say 'sorry' for not believing in you enough."

He confirmed his bid for Moscow mayor was back on track, having registered as candidate shortly before his conviction on Thursday.

"The campaign will continue," he vowed. "Let's get to work."

The corruption-fighting lawyer, rose to prominence among the opposition during a series of protests in Moscow against President Vladimir Putin's re-election in March 2012.

Demonstrators had taken to the streets of Moscow to protest his detention

His conviction prompted criticism from the US and the European Union.

He has said he wants to challenge Mr Putin for the presidency in the next election, and believes his prosecution was politically motivated.

Meanwhile, Russian police have said they will pursue vandalism charges against whoever wrote offensive graffiti on the building of Russia's parliament, deriding President Putin.

Several thousand protesters had taken to the streets of Moscow to protest Navalny's imprisonment during which "Putin is a thief" and "Putin is gay" was scrawled on the lower house of parliament.

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Six Jailed For Life Over India Gang Rape

Six men have been sentenced to life in jail for the gang rape of a Swiss woman in India, according to reports.

"All the accused have been convicted and we are satisfied with the judgement," said the public prosecutor in the case, Rajendra Tiwari, according to the Press Trust of India.

The 39-year-old woman was raped during a cycling trip in the country with her husband in March.

The pair were in the impoverished Madhya Pradesh state when they were attacked. The perpetrators tied up the man and raped the woman in his presence.

They also stole 10,000 rupees (£122) and a mobile phone from the woman.

The rape occurred three months after the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in Delhi, which brought simmering anger about the treatment of women in India to the surface.

More follows...

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Beijing 'Bomber' Was Protesting Against Police

Details are quickly emerging about the man behind a small explosion at Beijing's International Airport.

His name is Ji Zhongxing. He was born in 1979 and he is from Shandong Province.

He appears to be one of a large number of people in China known as 'petitioners'.

Each has an individual social grievance. Some complain that the local government in their province has stolen their land - a so-called 'land-grab', others will try to expose malpractice at their local hospital or factory.

At the heart of each of their stories will be one thing: corruption.

We often get petitioners at the Sky News bureau in Beijing. They knock on our door armed with documents which they hope will prove their claim.

They travel from their provinces to the Chinese capital in the hope that the central government might listen to them. They are almost always disappointed.

Ji Zhongxing's story - if his online blog is accurate - is tragic.

The blog, complete with graphic photographs, emerged through China's equivalent of twitter, Weibo.

Eyewitnesses said a homemade bomb was detonated

In it, Ji says he was beaten up by the Chinese police in 2005. He says the beating was so severe, it paralysed him from the waist down.

He explains that he used to run a bike taxi service in his local town. He was not registered, which is how he ended up in trouble with the police.

It's not clear how Ji travelled to the airport in Beijing. But, for his unusually extreme form of 'petitioning', he chose a place which gave him significant publicity.

Beijing's Terminal 3 is the largest of the airport's terminals and is where all the international flights arrive.

His explosive device was not very powerful and appears to have been detonated just outside the doors where arriving passengers emerge.

Crowds were nearby, waiting for people to arrive, but not in his immediate vicinity.

Perhaps then he was not intending to injure anyone but himself - he wanted to draw attention to corruption.

His moment was photographed multiple times in seconds. Locals posted on Weibo.

However the scene was cleared up within half an hour. Cleaners were drafted in to remove burns from the walls and marks from the floor. Efficient? Yes. But probably an attempt to restore order fast and remove any sense that someone has questioned authority.

There are already suggestions that the government censors are busy deleting Weibo posts related to the incident.

Any foreigners arriving at the airport who had wanted to post their pictures of the incident on Twitter or Facebook would have struggled. Both are banned and blocked in China. 

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Beijing Airport Blast 'Caused By Wheelchair User'

A man has been hurt after apparently detonating a homemade bomb in an arrivals hall at Beijing International Airport.

Pictures posted on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, Weibo, showed smoke in Terminal 3 after the blast at around 6.30pm local time.

Witnesses have claimed that a man was sitting in a wheelchair in the arrivals hall, shouting and waving a small bag in the air before the explosion took place.

The Weibo microblog of state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said a man detonated a package of black gunpowder used to make firecrackers just outside the international arrivals exit.

Photos taken in the minutes after the explosion showed a wheelchair lying on its side, medical workers attending to someone and people running through the terminal.

Police appear to tend to a casualty. Pic: @mild_luna

A man, who local media named as Ji Zhongxing, who was born in 1979 and in Shandong Province, was injured in the blast and has been taken to hospital.

No one else was hurt in the incident and airport operations are now back to normal.

"The explosion sound was loud," said a witness who gave only his family name, Chen. He said he was only 25m away from the explosion when it occurred.

Chen said there was only one explosion, and that the terminal was crowded with people.

"Since there was no second explosion, many people took out their phones and gathered near the explosion spot to take photos," he said.

He said police responded to the explosion immediately.

Only the wheelchair user was injured in the blast

Sky's China Correspondent Mark Stone, at the airport, said the man may have travelled to the capital to petition for a particular social cause.

"This is looking like a tragic story really. There are a lot of people in China who call themselves 'petitioners'.

"Every now and again they go a little bit further and it's a very much more extreme form of petitioning and that I think, is what this appears to be."

Stone said most petitioners complain of local corruption, land grabs and beatings.

He added that a blog purporting to have been written by the man contains claims he was beaten and paralysed by Chinese police in 2005. This has not been verified.

Terminal 3, which opened in 2008 just ahead of the Beijing Olympics, is the airport's hub for international flights. United Airlines and American Airlines operate out of the terminal.

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Chris Froome Set For Tour De France Win

Team Sky's Two Remarkable Riders

Updated: 4:42pm UK, Saturday 20 July 2013

By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent

When Team Sky was founded in 2010, Sir Dave Brailsford's stated ambition of winning the Tour de France within five years was greeted by the sound of people laughing behind their hands.

Some did not even both concealing their mirth.

A Briton, after all, had not won cycling's greatest test at all in its 97 years. Three years later, in the centenary running of Le Tour, a Brailsford Brit is about to win it for the second successive year.

There are many reasons for the British annexation of the Champs Elysees but chief among them is the presence in Sky's black-and-blue ranks of two extraordinary athletes.

The first, Sir Bradley Wiggins, was familiar to the public when he won the race last year having developed within the Olympic track team run by Brailsford.

He secured national treasure status a week later in the 2012 Games.

Chris Froome, who come sunset in Paris on Sunday night will inherit Wiggins's title, is a very different character, but his rise is no less remarkable.

Both men have been shaped by bumpy upbringings outside the UK, and both have lost a parent. But there are few other similarities, beyond the bikes.

Wiggins grew up in Belgium, close to cycling's roots, and endured the absence of his father who left the family having planted the seed of cycling in his son's head.

Froome was schooled in the sport as far from its European epicentre as it is possible to imagine.

Born in Kenya to English parents who separated when he was just 11, he learned the sport riding with a cycling club founded for poor black Africans.

It was an early lesson in self-sufficiency that has served him well throughout his career.

His peers and teachers at boarding school in South Africa talk of Froome's fierce motivation, and hours spent on the rollers in his room hammering out static miles that laid the foundations of the astonishing strength and determination we have seen this last three weeks.

He ploughed a lonely furrow, struggling to find a professional berth in South Africa and then in Europe before his talent and promise was spotted by Brailsford, who signed him up to his formative team.

That came two years after Froome's mother Jane died from cancer.

His formative years did not leave him with the purest technique. While Wiggins's flat back and languid leg strokes seem to eat up the miles, Froome strikes a hunched silhouette.

It may not be pretty but it is just as effective, particularly in the mountains that have punctuated this ferociously tough Tour.

It is arguable that in taking victory in this of all years Froome has demonstrated that in the Grand Tours at least, he is a superior performer to Wiggins.

There was evidence last year, which Froome spent as Wiggins's super-domestique, leading him up the most testing climbs and, notoriously, suggesting at times that he had the team leaders' measure.

This year there has been no argument that Froome is the strongest man in the field, and certainly his own team, which has been a shadow of the devastating black road-train that propelled Wiggins to yellow last year.

His strength in the mountains has left rivals in awe, in part because he has often had to defend the yellow jersey above the tree-line alone.

The defining stage came a week ago on Mont Ventoux, when Froome rode away from the peleton and his rivals with a superlative display of climbing.

It was immediately hailed as one of the great stage wins in 100 years of the Tour, and more immediately consolidated his grip on the yellow jersey.

He has not looked like relinquishing it, not on the double ascent of Alpe D'Huez last week or the final mountain stages on the road back to Paris.

On Sunday he will find the Champs Elysee en fete and ready for a floodlit firework celebration of the world's greatest bike race.

And its champion will be a Briton so good even the most partisan Frenchman will have to applaud.

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